Lipstick on a pig: Senator Barack Obama cannot possibly have intended to call Governor Sarah Palin a pig, in his remarks today in Lebanon, Virginia. Surely (although it follows similar remarks from his campaign that clearly were referring to Palin). What this demonstrates, again, is his incredible lack of good judgment. As the polls turn against him — although we are still some time from election day — he is literally coming apart and melting down. This man should be the President of the United States?

…

Speaking of Palin (and it’s all anyone is doing, going on two weeks since she was selected by John McCain to be his running mate), she is giving carte blanche to ABC News to interview her over the course of a couple of days, and then play excerpts as they choose. This remains a sensitive time in terms of how Sarah Palin is being defined to the American voter. Certainly, to date, it could hardly have gone better for her. She is named; there is a flurry of positive reaction; there is then a quick deluge of negative innuendo from liberal partisans in the media; she appears on stage and blows everybody away with both barrels. Still, there are major gaps in people’s knowledge of her, and there is still a chance for her overwhelmingly positive image to be punctured by some kind of scandal or faux pas. I think she’ll do fine with Charlie Gibson — he is not as conspicuous a Democratic partisan as CBS’s Katie Couric or NBC’s David Gregory, for instance. Yet, as Mrs. RWB has vociferously asserted since this interview was announced, it may be a mistake to allow her first major interview since assuming the national stage to be conducted in this manner. It gives ABC total editorial control of the final result. If the interview were live, then nothing could be cut, and nothing could be portrayed out of context. But when an interview is being taped, much more power resides with the interviewer and the editors. A sore spot or weak point may be found (everyone has one and some of us have several). The interviewer is free to linger on the sore spot, ask many questions, compel awkward answers. In the broadcast, this segment can be made the central part of the interview, leaving many much stronger moments for the interviewee on the cutting room floor. In a live interview, on the other hand, the interviewer is under pressure to cover multiple topics in the allotted time, and is therefore somewhat handicapped if trying to pursue a particular agenda. Since the news that Gibson scored the big interview with Sarah Palin, he is being mocked in lefty circles as some kind of softy and incompetent. Will he and his editors attempt to draw some blood and make some news?

It wouldn’t be a concern were this not her first major media availability since being picked, and were the election not less than sixty days away.

…

The first presidential debate between Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain will take place on September 26th. Obama has made clear, by refusing McCain’s offer of debates before the conventions, that he is afraid to have to face his opponent in this way. The results of the Saddleback Forum provided ample evidence as to why his fear is well grounded. That said, the debates are not without risk for McCain. The major risk he faces is this: Since choosing Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, McCain may think he has the conservative base completely sewn up, and may go too far in trying to distance himself from regular Republicans during the debates in an attempt to appeal to the “middle”. There are things he could conceivably say that could take the air out of the great bubble of enthusiasm that has arisen since the Palin pick. Let’s hope he continues to prove that he’s smarter than all us crazy right-wingers think he is.

...................
Share this!

Posts which might be related to this one based on a mysterious algorithm:

• Palin provides
• The excessively-anticipated Sarah Palin interview with Charlie Gibson
• The imminent Palin/Biden debate